


The Anti-Nightmare Job

by sophoklesworld



Series: The Job Chronicles [3]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Episode: S04e07 The Grave Danger Job, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer, Multi, Nightmares, i guess, kinda PTSD, post The Grave Danger Job
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-15 01:11:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5766271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophoklesworld/pseuds/sophoklesworld
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hardison survived one more job. It still takes it's toll. But nightmares are a better option than death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Anti-Nightmare Job

**Author's Note:**

> Soo, another drabble.  
> I am sorry, if this is kinda dark.  
> I currently don't feel like writing that much fluff, i guess. I didn't get around to write a thing for s04E01 yet, which I guess would be a little happier (maybe also the other episodes in between this one and the season finale of s3).
> 
> Anyway. Enjoy reading!

This one was a close call.

Hardison still feels the fear deep in his bones.

He lies in bed, still shaking from the loss of oxygen. Theoretically, he knows that he’s alright. But his brain retreats back into the black alleys it created in these worst moments of his life.

 

He is cold. Parker still sits downstairs, in the pub. He was fine, when he pressed that kiss to her cheek and thanked her. Now, he isn’t.

Now, the darkness around him threatens to fall down over him, close in on him.

It gets so bad, Hardison has to get up and turn on the light. He convinces himself that he’s alive, he’s not trapped in a small space, not going to suffocate anytime soon.

 

The thing is, Hardison’s been there before. He has been close to death before. Multiple times. Most of these experiences happened after he joined Nate. But this one is different. All those times he almost died were different. Because even though it might have been a close call. Even though it looked really _really_ bad there, just for a moment. His team, his family had been there with him. And he always knew they would come for him, and try their hardest, to get him out of there alive.

But today, they hadn’t been close. They tried as hard as always. But they weren’t _there_ with him. He wasn’t safe like he usually was.

 

Hardison paces up and down the room. He can’t lie there, in the dark. He doesn’t want to have nightmares again. He knows they would transform now. It doesn’t help that he sees it vividly in his mind now. Him lying in the coffin in a grave, his throat threatening to close up, suffocate him. And then, water — _drop, drop, drop_ — from the ceiling of the coffin. Leaving an unpleasant cold wet on him, until finally, its too much and he's swimming, his hands cuffed, his feet unmoving. A few desperate breaths, only his face above the water surface in the coffin. Until finally, he’d drown and wake up with a jolt.

He shakes his head to banish this thought process from his mind. This isn’t the point of not having nightmares.

Hardison sinks back onto his bed with a sigh and puts his head in his hands.

A moment later, the door opens.

He half expects Parker, but when he looks up, Eliot is standing in front of him.

Eliot makes a gesture for Hardison to get up, which he does, only to be embraced in a tight hug.

 

It is the second hug, Eliot gives him today. Hardison doesn’t know, whether Eliot hugs him to reassure himself or Hardison, and he doesn’t care.

He just hugs back. Because it feels good, and he _needs_ it. This body pressing against his, the knowledge of not being alone and being alive.

“Don’t ever do that to me again”, Eliot mumbles, just like earlier that day.

It warms and simultaneously breaks Hardison’s heart. He’s happy that Eliot cares, glad that he has someone who’ll come looking for him. But on the other hand — what if he died? Eliot couldn’t handle it, from how he’s acting now. And Parker — oh god, Parker!

 _I need you_ , her voice echoed through Hardison’s head. He couldn't die. If he’d let any of them alone, they’d-

He can’t finish that thought and realises only, that there are tears in his eyes, when a wet sob bubbles out of him and into Eliot’s shoulder (none of them seemed to be willing to let go just yet).

 

Eliot is just holding on, despite the tears and sobs. His strong arms are a silent reassurance and support for Hardison. He lets the tears come, lets go of his fears, the ones he was holding on to all day.

 

When his sobs subside, Eliot guides him to the bed, and when they sit down, arms still around each others bodies, Hardison realises, that Parker must have sneaked in, because she sat there, at the end of the bed, her legs crossed and head in hands.

She looks like she feels better, and when Hardison extends an inviting arm, she smiles a tiny smile and wriggles between him and Eliot, making herself small.

She clings to both of them and Hardison can tell it’s gonna be one of those nights again, where they’ll all sleep in one bed.

They didn’t do that in a few weeks, now that he thinks of it — not all of them, at the same time — but he can’t say he minds.

If he has to endure nightmares, he is glad he doesn’t to face them alone. And he doesn’t want to feel cold and trapped in a dark room. He won’t, now that Eliot and Parker are here. They are his anchors and he is theirs.

If they have each other, they have everything they need.

 

Lying between the two of them, sleep is coming easy.

  
*  *  *

  
When he wakes up the next morning, Hardison is still wrapped into a strong arm around his shoulders and an octopus around his waist.

With a relieved smile and a kiss to both of their heads he realises that he didn’t have any nightmares that night.


End file.
